1 in 10 Hospitals Deny Operations to Smokers -- Many Docs Say Patients Have Responsibilities

PRLog (Press Release) – Jan 26, 2008 – One in ten UK hospitals already deny some surgeries to smokers, and a growing number of doctors apparently approve, arguing that patients have responsibilities as well as rights.  These include responsibilities to care for their own health.

The hospitals defend the policies because of the higher risk of complications on the operating table for unfit patients, a contention well documented in many studies.  That's why over 90% of the MDs surveyed say that an alcoholic who refused to stop drinking should not be allowed a liver transplant, and one third say that patients who refuse to quit smoking should be denied a heart bypass.

In another approach to the same problem, more and more U.S. health insurance companies and employers are instead charging smokers more for their health insurance to help give them an additional incentive to quit.

The purpose is to use economic incentives to improve health and save tens of billions in health insurance costs, says the public interest law professor whose federal ruling permits health insurance companies to charge smokers more.

Taxpayers should not continue to be forced to pay tens of billions to cover the added health insurance costs of smoking covered by government programs, and the added health care costs under private insurance policies," says law professor John Banzhaf of Action on Smoking and Health (ASH).  "Instead, smokers should be forced to pay more of the huge costs they themselves currently impose on taxpayers."

"Making smokers pay more of their fair share of the huge health costs of tobacco use is not only fairer; it also provides a very strong, direct, and immediate economic incentive for them to quit -- often the first one they ever have."

Also, sending them a bill each month for the additional health insurance premium for being smokers is a very powerful educational program which alerts them and their families to the many dollars they could be saving.

"Those with unsafe driving habits pay more for their automobile insurance, people who do not take reasonable steps to keep their homes safe pay more for home insurance, and those who smoke pay already more for life insurance.  By the same reasoning, those who continue to smoke should also be required to pay more for health insurance."

Many argue that patients have rights, but Banzhaf suggests that they may also have responsibilities. Most smokers, he says, do not really take personal responsibility for their habit and its immense health care costs, since they do not pay them.

Either these immense costs are paid in large part by the government under Medicare, Medicaid, Veterans' Benefits, Indian Benefits, or other welfare programs, or they are paid by the great majority of people who wisely do not smoke under systems where both are required to pay the same amount for their health insurance.

PROFESSOR JOHN F. BANZHAF III
Executive Director and Chief Counsel
Action on Smoking and Health (ASH)
2013 H Street, NW
Washington, DC 20006, USA
(202) 659-4310 // http://ash.org